Kind of Brown is a studio album by American jazz bassist Christian McBride together with his band Inside Straight, released on June 16, 2009 (2009-06-16).
Will Lyman of PopMatters wrote "With his new band, “Inside Straight”, and its new disc Kind of Brown, McBride finally feels focused and serious.
"[7] Phil Johnson of The Independent noted "Heard live, the music of star bassist Christian McBride’s quintet might swing, but this album (a tribute to the late double bassist Ray Brown, not that you’d guess) is strictly jazz for middle managers: the themes are corny or cute; the feel is too polite to be properly funky and the frontline of soprano sax and vibes sounds ingratiating rather than challenging.
[8] Damian Erskine of Bass Musician mentioned "Great solo performances are lavished on every tune behind a very hip and tight ensemble.
Christian himself sounds better than ever, both in section mode, and offering up some very moving bass solos, again, everything we would expect from this very accomplished musician".